Chinese PVC demand set to reach 13m

The blog was at the Vinyls India – 2011 conference in Mumbai which has attracted over 400 delegates interested in hearing about the Indian market.

The country has emerged as a major importer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with nearly 650,000 tonnes of suspension grade imported in 2009-10.

But no PVC conference can ignore China where demand grew by around 15% in 2010 to reach 12m tonnes.

Demand is expected to reach 13m tonnes this year, estimated Chi Junqing, head of marketing at Shandong Xinfa Huayu Co.

Demand will be supported by China’s construction sector, as the government this year plans to start building 10m low-cost housing units, said

“This will provide a reliable guarantee for PVC building materials’ construction growth,” he added.

The Chinese government plans to build 36m units of subsidised apartments over the next five years.

Chi estimated Chinese PVC capacity at 20m tonnes/year while production was only about 11m tonnes in 2010.

Overall, the country has more than 90 PVC producers, with carbide-based PVC accounting for 81% of the total capacity, he said.

There are three carbide-based producers that have capacities that are more then 600,000 tonnes/year: Xinjiang Tianye, Xinjiang ZhongTai and Shandong Xinfa Huayu Co, according to Chi.

“After 2004, capacity has developed in provinces which have abundant raw material. Nearly 40% of the total capacity is now in the now in the northwest, southwest regions and in Inner Mongolia,” he said.

He pointed out that the quality of carbide-based PVC has consistently improved in the last few years because of changes to technology and use of large reactors.

“Carbide-based PVC can meet the quality criteria of ethylene method. The product has already got the approval from many global customers and was exported to more than 100 countries,” he said.